The Money Grab Gathers Pace

Connect the dots, people. The elite is in a hurry to grab every bit of loose change before you can even finish counting your fingers. Why the rush? and just look at the size of the money grab. They seem to be running scared, like they need blood for an emergency operation. Is the Singapore economy dying? How sick is it?

- "Temasek is raising billions of dollars through the bond market" (BT, March 24)
Temasek bond issues fire up market, By SIOW LI SEN.
"The local bond market is buzzing - issuance has hit $5 billion even before the quarter has ended, helped in no small way by Temasek's five benchmark issues over the last five months."

- They're holding onto a bigger chunk of your CPF money, and for as long as possible.
On March 12, the ST had this strange story, "CPF Life for those with $60,000 at age 65"
"CPF members with $60,000 in their retirement accounts when they turn 65 will be automatically included in the CPF Life annuity scheme, Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong announced yesterday." This was rushed through Parliament, passed into law one afternoon. There were no previous reports or hint that they were going to impose this new ruling. Nothing leaked about a new rule to hold onto your money at 65. Then, it was announced, and now, everyone is "automatically" a contributor. You have to leave some money in there at 65, and beyond.

- COE prices, sharply higher. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20100324/tap-561-coes-vehicle-categories-surge-la-231650b.html?printer=1. According to Channel NewsAsia (March 25 2010), COEs for all vehicle categories surged in latest bidding exercise. Prices have shot up by as much as S$14,000 in the latest bidding exercise.

- University fees sharply up. Last month, the three leading Singapore universities, NUS, NTU and SMU, all raised their fees by between 3% and 18% for this year’s students. A month earlier, the polytechnics and technical institutes had announced they would be raising their fees.

- The town councils in Jurong and Aljunied will be raising their service and conservancy charges from April 1, despite their claims to have millions of dollars in surpluses and the fact that Singapore has just suffered its worst recession in 50 years. Some of the other town councils can be expected to follow suit. In 2008, a ST report quoted Khaw Boon Wan, the PAP’s first organising secretary, that its 14 town councils had $2 billion in the sinking funds.

- Temasek setting up a US$3 billion hedgefund called Seatown. Seatown will be doing the gambling to try win back what Temasek lost earlier. another sign of desperation.

Now, for the worst and most painful move yet.

- PM Lee finally emerges from his secret hideout to make this ominous announcement:
“Govt to explore ways to increase use of CPF for buying HDB flats” (Channel News Asia, March 27).
He started off by berating a handful of individuals for selling their HDB flats for a quick profit, and then hinted a very important policy change soon. Sellers may have to return all their profits from the sale of their flats to their CPF accounts. Presently, you get to keep the profits after deducting expenses and the original capital sum which are returned to your CPF account. If PM Lee's hint becomes law, it will be the most drastic money grab in memory. Most people have their wealth stuck in their HDB flats. This means that money is now transferred to the govt. "Your" CPF is really the property of the govt's, or more accutrately, the elite.

The worst of the money grab involves your CPF. That's the people's money, not the PAP's, government's, or even the country's.
Why this desperation? The CPF is the last line of defence. Having lost more than US$100 billion through recklessly gambling away the country's financial reserves, GIC and Temasek are probably in deep trouble, or rather, the country is in deep trouble. The elite refuses to talk about it, and there are now laws or groups that can force them to say anything.
Let's also not forget that the elite just blew $6 billion on that casino, Universal theme park and resort on Sentosa. Another $6 billion will be dumped into the Marina casino. Both will drain the country's finances.
The government has to step in now by using the CPF to support the Singapore currency. Temasek selling bonds is a strange event too. You sell bonds because you need to raise cash. Why is Temasek raising cash? It looks like the elite is imposing capital controls on the people. Singapore is fast sliding down the slippery slope.